Ireland

The Best Literary Spots in Ireland

advertisement

Dublin Writers Museum (Dublin, County Dublin): Filled with letters, manuscripts, personal possessions, and other eclectic ephemera, this great museum in Dublin is a mecca for lovers of Irish literature. Naturally it also has a good bookshop.

Glasnevin Cemetery (Dublin): Besides being the setting for part of Ulysses, this is the resting place of James Joyce's parents and other members of his family. The English-born poet Gerard Manley Hopkins is buried here, in the Jesuit plot. Maud Gonne, the Irish nationalist and longtime Dublin resident who is said to have inspired Yeats's play Cathleen ní Houlihan, is buried in the Republican plot. The writer, drinker, and Irish Republican Brendan Behan is also buried here.

Davy ByrnesPub(Dublin, County Dublin): After a stop at the James Joyce Centre, make a pilgrimage to this venerable pub, which crops up in Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses: The hero, Leopold Bloom, famously orders a lunch of burgundy and a Gorgonzola sandwich here. The pub is acutely aware of its heritage, but knows better than to ruin the appeal by being too touristy.

James Joyce Museum (Dublin): At the edge of the sea in the Dublin suburb of Sandycove, this Martello tower was home to Joyce for a short time, and he based a character on his host, Oliver St. John Gogarty, described in Ulysses as "stately, plump Buck Mulligan." The museum was opened in 1962, and its interior has been restored to look as it did when Joyce was here, along with plenty of memorabilia, including Joyce's walking stick and guitar.

St. Patrick's Cathedral(Dublin): Jonathan Swift tickled and horrified the world with his vicious wit. He shook up political establishments with his sarcasm, and nauseated the English-speaking world with his suggestion that people should dine on Irish babies. While kicking up such a stir, he was dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, which sponsored and supported him through it all. He is buried here alongside his longtime companion, Stella Johnson.

County Sligo: With its many connections to the beloved poet W. B. Yeats, this county is a pilgrimage destination for poetry fans. The landscape shaped the poet's writing, and many of its landmarks—Lough Gill, Glencar Lake, Ben Bulben Mountain, Maeve’s tomb—appear in his verse. Be sure to visit Yeats’s dark and somber grave in Drumcliffe.

The Aran Islands: Though playwright John Millington Synge was born in County Dublin, as a leading figure in the Irish literary revival of the late 19th century, he became passionately interested in these brooding islands off the Galway coast—the setting for his most famous play, The Playboy of the Western World.

The Sperrin Mountains: Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) was born in Northern Ireland, between the Sperrin Mountains and Lough Neagh. Even as his literary fame took him around the world, his poetry remained rooted in the boglands, cairns, and farms of his native Ulster.

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.